Imperial Crown.

Chapter 77 Shameless Horse Thief (2k Collection Plus)

The eleventh day after departure.

Raven and his soldiers stepped onto the edge of the bloody highlands.

"We're finally here!" After crossing a gentle slope, Nancy opened her arms and took a breath: "Raven, can we leave now?"

In order to distance themselves from Eric and the others, Raven and his group walked and stopped frequently.

At the beginning, Nancy was quite excited by the quiet environment and the snow-covered mountains, but as time went by, the repetitive scenery made her slowly begin to feel extremely bored. She always wanted to find something to do and always wanted to chat with Raven.

But Raven always didn't want to pay attention to Nancy, and today was no exception.

At this moment, Raven was concentrating on looking at the map. He didn't even raise his head when he heard Nancy's words: "If you want to leave, go by yourself. Don't ask me."

Nancy frowned, made a face at Raven, and dejectedly slowed down her horse.

During this period of time, she truly understood the hardships of the march and the dangers of the bloody heights.

"Ka-"

A crow cried out, and Nancy looked up and her eyes lit up: "Look, crows! There are birds on the Bloody Heights!"

"Stop making noise—" Raven frowned, his tone quite impatient: "If you make noise again, I'll bury you in the snow pit!"

"What kind of person is that..." Nancy stuck out her tongue, but stopped talking.

A stream of white air gushed out of Raven's mouth. He looked up at the sun, put away the map and said, "Follow me. Hurry up and don't fall behind!"

"Hurry up and don't fall behind!" Volaf turned around and called out to the people behind him.

Listening to the sound of horse hooves following behind him, Raven's mood gradually calmed down. He looked far away and whispered to himself: "I still lack experience..."

Although we were well prepared, we still encountered a lot of trouble along the way.

The cold was not his worst enemy.

Since the team was small and his personal soldiers were all from Eagle Town and were more cold-resistant than the soldiers from Shining Gold Town, they were generally in good spirits.

The real problem lies in the lack of a guide.

The wind and snow were much stronger than he had imagined. It was the first time he witnessed the power of the "white-haired wind".

No matter how many people passed by and how many traces were left, they would soon be covered and buried by the wind and snow, and the original plan to follow Eric's troops would be shattered.

Coupled with the strong wind that blocked out the sun, even with a map and a compass, Raven still lost his way. It took him three full days to find the right way through a conspicuous mark on the map.

Fortunately, the scenery along the way was similar and no one noticed this, but the delay in reaching the destination still shook the morale.

But Raven didn't dare to speed up the march. He was not Simon and was not familiar with the terrain. He could only move carefully according to the map, for fear of leading the team into a snow pit.

Now that he has arrived at the Bloody Highlands, he feels relieved!
Bloody Highlands is a vast wasteland. Although it is difficult to obtain supplies, it also has one advantage -

As long as you know the direction, you can gallop on your horse without worrying about falling into a snow pit.

A small team has much more flexibility in choosing camping sites than Eric and his team. As long as they don't encounter a snowstorm, they can quickly make up for the distance they had accumulated in the past few days.

I don't know where Eric and the others went.

"Tsk, if only I had a cell phone..."

Raven sighed and looked at the sky which was beginning to darken. He vaguely saw a black shadow flash by, but it disappeared in the next moment.

"Am I blinded?"

He shook his head and squeezed his legs together to urge the horse to speed up slightly.

The wind and snow gradually stopped, and the orange-red sunlight spread across the earth, as if the entire wasteland was burning, but this did not bring any warmth at all.

"Let's set up camp here today." Raven found an abandoned building marked on the map.

Judging from its size, this building should be a temple, but it is unknown how long it has been abandoned. It is impossible to tell which true god it once worshipped or when it was built.

The ceiling had collapsed completely long ago.

Fortunately, although a lot of dust will fall off if you tap it lightly, the wall remains largely intact and can serve as a shelter from the wind.

The bodyguards pulled the felt blanket to cover the roof, which startled the crows on the wall. Just as the felt blanket was put up, the pitch-black head poked its head in again without anyone noticing.

They built a fire in the center and began to melt the snow in a pot to cook broth.

Night soon came, and the strong wind howled through the ruins, seeping into the house through the cracks in the walls, bringing with it waves of howling like ghosts.

Compared with Eric's side, their advantage of having fewer people is reflected here. Too many people cannot squeeze into such a ruin.

The shrill whistling sound became more and more intense. Nancy shrank her neck and wrapped herself in her blanket and moved closer to Raven.

The latter glanced at her and leaned aside.

As soon as he closed his eyes, Raven felt the breathing sound approaching him. He raised his eyelids slightly and saw Nancy approaching him again, even closer than before.

Raven yawned and said sarcastically, "Why, you insisted on bringing me to Bloody Highlands, but now you're scared?"

"Who, who is scared!?" Nancy muttered with her eyes wide open: "I was afraid that you would be too bored alone, so I came to chat with you."

"Yes, you are not afraid..." Raven's tone was drawn out, sounding particularly sinister: "Isn't it time for you to curl up in your blanket and cry secretly?"

Nancy's face turned red: "I'm not crying!"

"Well, I believe it!" Raven sneered and nodded. Nancy knew that Raven was talking about something that happened five days ago, when they had just separated from Eric and set up camp independently for the first time.

Perhaps because of their reduced numbers, they were surrounded by a pack of at least thirty wolves. In the darkness, the howling of wolves could be heard one after another, and those pairs of green eyes looked as creepy as demons.

Nancy initially wanted to fight back, but after being rejected by Raven, she wrapped herself in a blanket and shivered. She didn't sleep well the whole night, and she had dark circles under her eyes when she woke up the next day.

What frightened Nancy even more was that when she counted the pack horses early the next morning, she found that three of them were missing, leaving only large pools of blood on the ground.

Thinking of this, Nancy's eyes rolled: "You should have listened to my advice that time, otherwise you wouldn't have lost so many supplies!"

"I ordered those three horses to be released." Raven yawned.

Nancy snorted, "Bullshit!"

With nothing else to do, Raven bit off a piece of dried meat and chewed it. "It's dark, we're playing away from home, and there's snow everywhere. If we attack rashly, we'll only be in a passive position. It's possible that we'll have some casualties or even missing people."

"Let a few pack horses go out. They'll be well fed and we'll be safe for the night, right?"

Volaf came up and brought two bowls of hot broth, one large and one small, to them. "The Baron was smart and wise. He had planned that if the wolves were greedy and wanted to continue following us, they would die at dawn!"

Ten days of marching had worn away Nancy's temper. She took the wooden bowl without a care in the world and blew the hot air off it. "Hmph, what's so smart about that? If you were really smart, we wouldn't have to sleep out in the wild now."

Raven held the bowl in one hand and moved the bread around the edge of the bowl. "Hey, what do you think, Miss Nancy?"

"Isn't the target Heleti this time?" Nancy sipped the hot soup. "If it were me, I would have sent messengers to contact other bandits, such as 'Steel Teeth', 'Firebeard', and 'One-eyed Vulture' marked on the map long before coming to Bloody Highlands."

"Herati is such a big name, a horse thief dares to call himself 'Sand King', he must be an arrogant guy, the other gangs must have long since stopped obeying him!"

"Let's unite with these bandits and attack Heleti together. Once Heleti dies, our goal will be achieved, and their status and territory can be expanded. It's a win-win situation!"

Nancy became more and more excited as she spoke, with excitement flashing in her eyes: "And if they don't obey, we can kill them too!"

"Yeah! Good! Great!" Raven chewed the bread softened by the broth and nodded repeatedly: "No wonder you said we don't have to sleep outdoors. If I really did that, I would definitely be eating prison food now."

"As for you, ha, you're probably going to be taken away to warm someone's bed."

"You——" Nancy's eyebrows stood up: "Raven, what do you mean?"

"What I mean is that your suggestion is worthless and a truly bad idea." Raven's words were merciless.

"Humph, I think you're just jealous of my talent!" Nancy was very upset when the idea she had finally come up with was rejected by Raven. "Why don't you tell me why?"

"Want to know?" Raven smiled expressionlessly: "I won't tell you!"

Nancy pouted and held the bowl. Suddenly, an idea flashed in her mind. She pulled Raven's clothes and said, "Raven, just tell me."

"Stop!" Raven shuddered and pushed Nancy's hand away: "Don't touch me!"

"Then tell me quickly~" Nancy leaned forward and said: "Brother Raven~~"

Raven felt a chill, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "Okay, okay, I say, just sit still."

Nancy smiled proudly, sat up straight and took a sip of the broth: "Go ahead."

"This is a bad idea because you have forgotten their identities." Tearing the dried meat into pieces and soaking it in the soup, Raven said slowly: "They are horse thieves and robbers."

"Even though my Eagle Army has more than a hundred people, in their eyes, no matter how many people there are, they are just farmers who have just put down their hoes. They have no fighting power at all. They are not equal to them and have no qualifications for negotiation."

Nancy licked the soup like a cat: "Then why don't we show our strength? I'm a second-level magician!"

"Listen to me, or don't ask next time!" Raven glanced at Nancy: "Their identities have another meaning."

"Why are the bandits of Bloody Heights so notorious? Because they don't just rob Bloody Heights."

Raven's eyes became a little deep, and he thought of many things: "They come here every year, killing, robbing, and committing violence. Everyone's hands are stained with the blood of innocent people. They have long forged a blood feud with the Eagle Territory and the people of all the surrounding forces."

"So they not only look down on us, but they even hate us."

"Eh..." Nancy was stunned: "Raven, you got it wrong, shouldn't we hate them?"

"I didn't say anything against it." Raven shook his head. "They will indeed hate us. They will hate why we resist, why we can occupy fertile land, and why we don't pay tribute to them honestly. They want them to do it themselves."

“No one wants to be a bad person, and no one feels that they are doing bad things.”

"If they don't hate us, how can they justify their actions?"

Nancy was really stunned this time: "How can there be such a shameless guy in the world?"

"I've seen more shameless things than this." Raven snorted: "Now you know why your idea is stupid, right?"

Nancy's eyes drifted away, and she obviously didn't intend to admit that she had made a wrong idea, but she was very aware of the problem in her heart.

If they really did as she said, those horse bandits would never join them in attacking the Heleti, but would join the Heleti in besieging and killing them on the Bloody Highlands.

"oops……"

The angle of her head was too much, and with a thud, the tip of Nancy's eyebrow hit the wall.

"Who's there!?" Otto, who was guarding the door, suddenly shouted.

Raven and Nancy stood up immediately and looked towards the door at the same time.

……

(End of this chapter)